THE FA Cup dream may be over, but livewire striker Paddy James has ensured his goal-grabbing exploits with Lymington & New Milton will live long in the memory of his old school Testwood.

The 22-year-old from Totton was voted the FA's national player of the second qualifying round for his hat-trick against Clevedon United and has donated the prize of £1,000-worth of Umbro kit and equipment to Testwood's footballing class of 2003.

The goods were gratefully received by his old PE teacher and football coach Nick Ainsworth, who led Testwood's under-16s to their first Hampshire Schools' Cup success in 26 years during James's farewell term at the school.

James recalled: "I was in the same side as Stuart Hussey (Bashley), Peter Clark (AFC Totton) and Scott Ferguson (BAT), who are all playing at a decent level.

"We beat Bridgemary 4-2 in the final at BAT and I got two of the goals.

"Mr Ainsworth has still got all the pictures up of us winning the trophy and he's really chuffed with me donating my prize to the school.

"They got three lots of Umbro football kits, some balls and some tracksuit tops. It's handy for them because the school are trying to raise £50,000 for a new sports development and, although my prize was kit rather than money, they consider it to be £1,000 off the total."

Lymington's FA Cup run finally ground to a halt at Salisbury City on Saturday where they were beaten 5-1 in front of a packed 1,190 house in the fourth qualifying round. It was the biggest crowd the former Saints youngster had ever played in front of - barring one memorable day at Old Trafford when, as a nine-year-old, he paraded his skills in front of 45,000 prior to a Man United v Arsenal game.

Testwood School currently run eight football teams, five for boys and three for girls, and have reached the final of the Year 9 City Cup following on from success for their under-15s in the 2003 Southampton Schools' Six-a-Sides.

Eight of their pupils are practising Level 8 FA-qualified referees and the school has just applied for FA Charter Standard. Testwood are also preparing a bid for Sports College status, which is due to go in in March next year.